Two years ago this June we were on holiday in Turkey and I was sitting round the swimming pool in the hotel and, a young student doctor came up to me and out of the blue he said to me, “I’ve been watching you, I think you’ve got Parkinson’s Disease.” And he proceeded to examine me by the pool. And I was, obviously because I didn’t believe him and I was quite shocked, and he examined me and he confirmed that he, he thinks I should see me doctor when I come back to England because he was pretty convinced I had Parkinson’s. He was in his final year of medical college. That ruined the rest of the holiday because we were there for two weeks and that was the second day. 

 

 I think that his diagnosis was based mainly on watching me walk around the, the pool area, the slowness. And then obviously by the standard examination practice that he performed.

I’m based at home, I can, as long as I’ve got an internet connection which I have broadband, and my laptop and a mobile, I do now ninety percent of the job from home. And one of the other reasons for that is that , that I think I’ve got a problem driving, which I’ve, I’m told the  doctor and neurologist but they don’t consider it to be a serious problem at the moment, where I tend to lose my, it seems like I’m losing my balance, at night on a narrow country road. On motorways, roads that are lit up, no problem at all. But I tend to, for some reason I feel like I’m losing control between the, the white lines and the traffic coming the other way. Especially with bright lights, to the degree where I feel like I’m going to hit the kerb or hit them. So that I’ve given up driving at night, down dark roads, especially narrow roads, and that affects my job because in the Winter I could be in somewhere like Newcastle and I’ve got to drive home in the dark and, so they, they tend not to send me out to customer’s sites any more. So it has impinged on my job. But they’re very supportive and , you know, they’re, they’re sort of sticking in there with me.

The main affect that I have is the side effects of the tablets, which I’ve always had on all the drugs that I’ve taken, which is tiredness. About an hour to an hour and a half after taking the drugs, the drugs that I’m taking, I get this deep yawning session for about fifteen minutes where I’m yawning my head off and, tears stream out my eyes. And round about four o’clock in the afternoon I quite often feel like I really, really need to go and have some sleep. And after about half an hour, I feel okay again. So after each, each, I take tablets three times a day, about an hour after each one I get this yawny, yawning session. Real tired feeling, watery eyes. That’s the way it affects me.

Whenever you go to the doctor or the specialist and you say, “I’ve got this symptom, that symptom.” They, they seem to quite easily, this is not a criticism but it seems that a lot of these symptoms that you can have in your body are attributed to, to Parkinson’s. Sometimes I think they say it if they don’t know what the problem is, you know, let’s blame Parkinson’s. But that’s a harsh thing to say, I don’t really mean it in a harsh way. But that’s the main problem that I have at the moment is, is tiredness and sleepiness. I was in a meeting yesterday, a team meeting at work, and my boss was presenting and I could hardly keep my eyes open. You know, I know that can happen in meetings but this was ridiculous because I had to walk out the room and get a coffee, you know, it’s a bit embarrassing.

 

That’s right. That’s true but it happens more if I’m sitting at a desk working. If I was to be, for example, putting some shelves up in the house or digging the garden it seems to pass easier. It’s more to do with sitting still and particularly reading or, a book or a screen, seems to, that seem to be the time when it, you know, takes a grip. So it, so the recommendation to anybody else would be to keep moving, keep active.

I started off on pramipexole, which is a Dopamine agonist and I’ve found it hard to get over the sick feeling from the drugs and I felt really sick. So that was changed to Ropinirole. Requip is the commercial name, and I, I stayed with them for about three or four months and got up to four milligrams, five milligrams. And I, I decided that although a lot of symptoms disappeared I was starting to, because I think because I felt better, I was starting to question whether I was ill in the first place. So I decided to stop taking the drugs, and slowly and gradually a lot of the symptoms started creeping back in, especially this feeling of slowness. It’s like you’re in slow motion. So I decided that I had to go back onto drugs again. This is, in the meantime I’ve been seeing the neurologist quite, quite regularly, every few months. I didn’t just do it off my own back, obviously. And we decided to try patches and I think that’s a drug called Rotigitine. Very expensive, they don’t normally like giving them out I don’t think. But I requested the patches and I tried the patches and they were really good. But you can only take up to about eight milligrams a day. They’re 24 hour patches but I felt that, I felt they weren’t strong enough. I could go one step further.

But although they go up to sixty milligrams for use with, in conjunction with other drugs, on its own, the patches, the Rotigotine, you can only take up to eight milligrams. So in conjunction with the neurologist again, we decided to put me back on to Ropinirole which is where I was about a year ago. I’m currently on five milligrams of Ropinirole, Requip. It’s not a hundred percent, it’s not perfect but, they eradicate a, a lot of the symptoms. I feel a lot better. Still got problems with my handwriting and the rhythm of cleaning the teeth.

I belong to a well known gymnasium, a consortium round here and I do probably two or three times a week, not as much as you should do, exercises in the gym. Exercises like spinning classes, cycling, rowing. Stuff that gets your heartbeat going, cross-trainer, different machines that are in the gym. Some weights, stomach exercises. Some swimming, which I’m not very good at. And I find that after doing good exercise and the blood gets, your heart rate gets going and, blood pumping round your body that you feel better afterwards. For example I’m sitting here at the moment with a really stiff neck, which I’m not convinced but I’m learning to accept things and that’s probably due to Parkinson’s, a symptom of Parkinson’s.

If I go to the gym and have a good work out and, when I come out, quite often my neck is a lot looser. You feel better. So anybody who’s got this condition I would recommend if they can do lots of exercise. I’ve also got a bike here, a push bike and I, instead of driving to the shops or walking I tend to use my push bike because it’s good exercise.